One of the hallmarks of RIT's engineering programs is a senior project sequence that each student completes before graduation. Software engineering students take this two-course sequence during the Winter and Spring quarters just prior to graduation. The goal of the courses is to have seniors synthesize and apply the knowledge and experience they have gained at RIT and on co-op assignments.

Companies and other organizations with challenging technical problems frequently contact software engineering faculty, and in many cases these problems are appropriate for assignment to a senior project team. The following sections describe activities that are commonly performed as part of the courses.

Winter Quarter

Each team holds a project kick-off meeting during the first week of the Winter term. At this meeting, the sponsor will often give a presentation that introduces the team to the project and the domain knowledge they will need to learn. The bulk of the winter term is often devoted primarily to requirements elicitation and architectural design, but it may also include detailed design, prototyping, and production depending on the nature of the project and development methodology adopted by the team. In addition, teams are responsible for organizing their efforts and assigning specific roles to team members, as well as developing a project plan (including scheduled, concrete milestones). Typically, the plan evolves along with the project as teams learn more about the problem and aspects of the solution.

Spring Quarter

While the winter term typically addresses strategic issues related to requirements, specification, design, and planning, most of the spring is devoted to tactical issues of development, and deployment. It is during this term that the careful planning and disciplined design from the winter bear fruit in the construction, integration, testing, and demonstration of a complete system.

Sponsors

Companies and organizations that have sponsored senior projects include:

• Alstom Signaling, Inc. Transit Systems - North America
• Eastman Kodak
• EDS
  
• Harris Corporation, RF Communications Division
• IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
• JPMorgan
  
• National Soaring Museum
  
• PAETEC Communications
• RIT Office of Cooperative Education and Career Services
• Society for Total Emergency Programs (STEP) Council of the Genesee Region
• University of Rochester
• US Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate

Interested in Sponsoring a Senior Project?